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So July’s story has come to a close, and while it was not quite the happy one we wanted, it was unfortunately all that couldn’t been expected for that period of history.

This series has been an extremely difficult watch, and so it was probably too much to hope for that July gets what she so justly deserves.

And so, through gritted teeth, as Jack Rowden’s Mr Goodwin begins to fall into insanity, so does our hop of July making it out of her complicated situation as anything other than heartbroken.

This story was never meant to be a fairytale – it was supposed to be a real one, and while July may never have existed in reality, her tale of abuse and triumph and loss is harrowingly, all too common if we look back far enough.

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Worst thing is, we don’t even have to really look back that far.

July’s story is so incredibly important and needs to be remembered (Picture: BBC)

While Goodwin arrived on the island with the intent of freeing the slaves, he had no idea what that would actually mean to him, and his privilege of having people at his disposal taken away from him causes him to react in violent and horrible ways.

Unable to comprehend that he doesn’t have ownership over the black slaves anymore, his sanity begins to unravel, and by the end it’s better for the former slaves to walk away than to willingly subject themselves to a life of slavery.

July’s attempts to try and save her ‘husband’ is extremely difficult to watch, especially as his treatment of her continues to deteriorate.

Even Caroline, who has been too easy to pass over her own mistreatment in a sham marriage, seems shaken by her husband’s behaviour – but with an ability to bury her head in the sand like no other, she perseveres.

While July may have found some kind of peace thanks to son Thomas, it’s important that not everyone was as lucky (Picture: BBC)

By the time we see him dismiss July, the once great love of his life, as her slave moniker Marguerite, we knew that the relationship was done for – and by the time we saw him hold a knife to her, we were just left praying that she makes it out alive.

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I’m kind of disappointed in the progression of Caroline, who was quick to stop Goodwin from killing July in her only true moment of compassion she’s shown throughout her entire series. Despite herself, she cares for July, and there was real hope they would rise up side-by-side and re-establish themselves without the cruel Goodwin.

However, like the show will repeatedly remind us, this isn’t a fairy tale.

Instead, the doctors of 1838 blame his mental breakdown on his relationship with the black people of the plantation, and July was number one on that list. From that moment on, he’s done with her, and starts his marriage with Caroline afresh.

Goodwin’s complete mental collapse is blamed on July – and her world crumbles (Picture: BBC)

But nothing was worse than the moment they take away her child for a new life in England.

In that moment, Tamara Lawrence delivered a performance that we felt in her bones – over the course of the series we had seen her and her friends be mentally and physically tortured, and yet remain resilient and even find the humour in the world they inhabited. But as she gets betrayed by a friend, and she wails hopelessly on the floor, you can see her last shred of fight has been taken from her.

Setting off for a new life with the rest of the former slaves, July is then kept in a world of poverty, as Amity plantation lies in ruins.

A chance arrest decades later then brings her fortune in the shape of her son – who is someone we had all but forgotten about thanks to his fleeting moment of life on screen as a baby back in episode one.

With baby Emily gone, July loses the last of her ability to fight (Picture: BBC)

Thankfully, he has been raised well, and is ready and willing to provide for her as he brings her into his family. It’s a bittersweet moment and it was long overdue for a character that has suffered so badly, and we need to remember that this is the closest we get to a happy ending.

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July never gets the answers she desperately needs, or the closure she wants, but she at least gets something – which is more than the thousands who died at the hands of a slave owner’s whip, the illness they suffered when they were free, and the poverty she overcame but others never came out of.

The silent moment of reflection at the end cements this. But July’s story, above all, is a story of strength of character, and she is honestly one of the best heroines we’ve seen on TV in recent years for what she had to overcome and bringing life and light to the darkest moments of a torturous existence.

This series was a seriously painful watch at times, and might not have ended the way you might have hoped, but it’s an astonishing and, quite frankly, important moment of time that the English try and erase from the history books.

It’s a story that needed to be told, warts and all, and that’s why this story is worthy of everyone’s time.

The Long Song is available in full on BBC iPlayer now.

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